This account of how Nazi war criminals were shielded from justice by the UK after World War II describes how the immigration policy of Clement Atlee's post-war government actually favoured Eastern Europeans over non-whites and Jewish Holocaust survivors. Despite protests from MPs, Dick Crossman and Tom Driberg, former members of the Waffen-SS and Nazi police unites made new lives in Britain. British intelligence recruited agents among these former Nazis and sent many into the Eastern Bloc, where they were betrayed by Kim Philby. Only in 1986 did the Simon Wiesenthal Centre provide evidence that could not be ignored. The House of Lords defied the Commons in a last-ditch effort to stop legislation which would permit war crimes trials in Britain, but on May 10 1991, the war crimes bill was signed by The Queen.
Author Biography
David Cesarani is Director of Studies at the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library. He has written on Anglo-Jewish history, and the history of Zionism, and has written the official history of the Jewish Chronicle newspaper. From 1987-1991 he was consultant to the All-Party Parliamentary War Crimes Group and was Principal Researcher of its 'Report on the Entry on Nazi War Criminals and Collaborators in the UK, 1945-50. He was awarded the OBE in the New Year Honours List 2006.
